UNCTAD believes that enhanced cooperation between the private and the public sector is essential to the effective integration of developing countries into the global economy and seeks ways to involve civil society organizations, academia, trade unions, parliamentarians and business associations in its work.

Cooperation with civil society is mutually beneficial: it helps civil society actors, empowering and enhancing their advocacy role in support of sustainable development, while adding value to the work of UNCTAD and its member States in achieving tangible development outcomes.

The Civil Society Outreach (CSO) Unit of UNCTAD is responsible for liaison and outreach to civil society. Its role is to encourage and facilitate participation and engagement of civil society in the work of UNCTAD.

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The 12 goals put forward by the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel of eminent persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda require a raft of economic reforms, UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi has said.

Panelists argued that a well-designed monetary system is essential to ensure success in a post-2015 development agenda, as the monetary system will frame the range of policy choices on jobs, income, fair distribution of the costs of adjustment and the developmental impact of trade.

The panelists pointed out that especially developing countries need a clear framework and concrete guidelines to develop their financial sectors in a sustainable way and to be assured of a healthy international financial system.

Input from civil society – non-governmental organizations, academics, business leaders, and others – will be sought during a two-day debate on how to raise living standards and spur economic growth in a world that has changed greatly since the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were set in 2000.

“An alternative investment strategy must translate into a concrete set of policies that give special attention to domestic resource mobilization, particularly to innovative ways of generating domestic revenue to meet public investment needs and to promote the growth of a domestic industrial base.” - Tony Tujan